Weekend pick: ‘The Lightning Thief’ at Madera Theatre Project
By Olivia Pavao
If you’re a fan of Greek mythology, overdue prophecies and emotionally unavailable gods, I have just the show for you to see this weekend.
The Madera Theater Project concludes its run of “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” this weekend. It performs at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 10, and 7 p.m. Friday, July 11, before closing at 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 12.
(An added incentive for you Madera Unified students out there: you can see the show for free by registering for an expanded learning stage pass!)
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Growing up, “Percy Jackson & the Olympians” by bestseller Rick Riordian was my favorite book series. Since then, they’ve done many offshoots of the novels, from movies to tv shows to spinoff stories. However, “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” is one of my favorite adaptations of the nostalgic saga. I haven’t yet seen the Madera production, but it looks promising.
“The Lightning Thief” is about a young teenager named Percy Jackson who discovers after a heap of strange run-ins that he’s no ordinary kid– he’s the son of a Greek god, like the ones that you read about in the myths.
Jackson is whisked away from boarding school to the deadliest summer camp you can imagine, where typical camp activities are nowhere to be found, replaced by sword fighting and deathly capture the flag.
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Here, Jackson meets a group of unlikely heroes who join him on a fated cross-country quest to prevent a catastrophic war amongst the gods on Olympus — as well as discovering who he is and where he now belongs.
With a high-energy rock score full of songs like “Killer Quest!” and “My Grand Plan,” this musical is jam-packed with fun, humor and action for families and people of all ages.
